From rental store owner — Renowned director
The director that gave us films like Attacks of 26/11, Rakta Charitra,Sarkar, Sarkar Raj, company and many more, turns 54 today. Some of you may have guessed it but some may still be scratching their heads on who this could be. Well it’s our very own Ram Gopal Verma.
Ram Gopal Verma or you can call him RGV, never had any connections with the filmy world and yet he became one of the bigger names known in the industry today. During his school days, the director often fantasized about the bad boys in the class and how they moved about in school. He often idolized them, he looked at them as heroes even though he knew their is nothing heroic about what they do. This fascination over the anti social elements became a flavor of his movies.
Early days
RGV’s parents considered him to be a sore loser and they never really had much expectations from him. He too was unclear about his and neither had any good future goals. He completed B.Tech in Civil engineering from V.R. Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada. Even in those days he used to skip classes and watch movies in theaters multiple times even though he has seen it already. He says that, watching the same movie over and over again just for his favorite scene and analyzing them is how he learned the art of direction.
He worked as a site engineer at Krishna Oberoi hotel in Hyderabad but that wasn’t gonna last for long, he decided to move to Nigeria so he can make some big bucks that never happened as he got infatuated with the idea of starting a video rental shop which he got from visiting a library in Hydrabad. It was from this shop that he was able to make connections with the film industry and apparently it allowed him to slowly transcend into the world of film making. He worked as Assistant Director to B. Gopal’s film Collector Gari Abbai. His first stint in directing was in 1989’ Telugu film Siva.
Career in Filmy world
RGV has portrayed all 3 majors roles which goes in the process of filmmaking.
He has Directed, written and produced films throughout his 26 years long career. He began his Journey in Telugu film siva from their he transcended to bollywood industry and won many awards for his amazing skill at directing. We saw him making over 75+ films out of which he has directed 48, written 36 and produced 38 movies. You need a serious amount of creativity to be able to do something like that for such a prolong period of time. He has made a number of successful Telugu and bollywood Films, although the list of films that failed in the box office are also as vast as his career in the industry.
Accomplishments and awards
RGV has been nominated over 36 times in various awards out of which he has managed to bag 17. He first shot to fame with ‘Rangeela’ for which he won the film-fare award of the best story. His infatuation with gangsters lifestyle and crime world is clearly evident from his mastery over the films that he has made over the years.
Relationships
As a matter of fact, RGV had many Indian divas in his arms. He had affairs with Urmila Marthondkar, Nisha Kothari, Jiah Khan, Antara Mali, Madhu Shalini and so many more. The director never really had a shortage of lady luck in his life despite him having a long list of flops. He treated his flings like deals and sometimes they impacted his life. One thing never really changed for the man, his love for film making of underworld or criminal personalities.
Author : Ayank Chouraisa
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